All-Star Game Pits Past Against Future for Harvard

In a Tuesday night clash of women’s hockey titans at Yale’s Ingalls Rink, the All-Star team from the ECAC took on the U.S. National Team.

Team USA emerged victorious, beating the ECAC All-Stars by a final score of 6-2.

Of interest to Harvard fans was the fact that both squads boasted a number of Crimson players past and present.

The U.S. National Team had the larger contingent, with senior Julie Chu and junior Caitlin Cahow joining alumnae Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 and Jamie Hagerman ’03, an assistant coach for last year’s Crimson.

The ECAC All-Stars featured three Harvard teammates: junior forward Katie Johnston, senior goalie Ali Boe, and junior forward Jennifer Sifers. Behind the bench for the All-Stars squad was Harvard coach Katey Stone, rounding out the Crimson family.

“It was a lot of fun to just play against my teammates,” Johnston said. “It was interesting to see them interact with their teammates and to see how they are doing there because we don’t get to see them play that often.”

Since it is the beginning of the college and Olympic season, both teams haven’t played much and playing time was crucial for all involved.

“A lot of the non-Ivy teams have played six games already and we just had our first on Saturday,” Johnston said. “It was good playing a fast-paced, high-level game.”

This was the third game of an 11-game tour—officially dubbed the Hilton Family Skate to 2006 Tour—for the U.S. National Team as it prepares for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

“Our goal is to try to give them a little bit of a challenge on their way to Turino,” Stone said before the game. “They are gaining momentum now. I’m sure when they head off to Italy they will be ready.”

It was also only the second game for the Harvard players on the ECAC All-Star team.

The Crimson opened its season against Robert Morris this past Saturday.

Even though the express purpose of the game was to warm up the American team, the ECAC All-Stars were determined to make a game of it and were even able to start the scoring when they notched the first goal.

But the All-Stars soon relinquished their lead when Ruggiero one-timed a goal on a USA power play at 10:11 in the first period.

Ruggiero also picked up assists on two other USA goals—both scored by Minnesota’s Natalie Darwitz—during the game, including the difference-making third goal early in the second period.

The other helper came in the third period.

Boe was forced to face Ruggiero and several other of her former Harvard teammates when she was put in the net for the second period.

Boe started out strong in goal, and didn’t allow a score for 13 minutes before letting three shots slip through in the waning minutes of the frame. The second of those goals came off the stick of Crimson mate Cahow, who gathered the puck off a face-off, slipped in and juked Boe for a score at 13:45 into the period.

The ECAC All-Stars were able to tally one more goal in the final period, but it was the U.S. National Team that closed out the scoring with the final goal of the match.

“We wanted to do the best we could,” Johnston said. “There were no expectations for us to win but it would be cool if we did.”

—Staff writer Abigail M. Baird can be reached at ambaird@fas.harvard.edu.